Le BAL is presenting the first major exhibition of the work of Canadian filmmaker Mark Lewis in Paris. It is also the first exhibition at Le BAL to be comprised entirely of video. Chantal Pontbriand and Diane Dufour have brought these seven wonderful and fascinating films exploring time, space and everyday life to the two-story exhibition space.
The show begins upstairs with The Pitch (1998), Mark Lewis’s only sound film and the only one in which he appears. Lewis stands in a train station reading aloud a text about extras in the movie industry as the camera gradually pans out to reveal the passersby. On the opposite wall, Cold Morning (2009), shows a homeless man in Toronto methodically packing his things in a daily ritual.
With these two films, the viewer sees the heart of the exhibition: Mark Lewis’s vision of contemporary society, the environment in which men evolve, the idea of time. There’s an almost documentary and political quality to which the narrative, the camera’s sumptuous movements and the magnificent, pictorial photography all give a hypnotic, tactile quality.
There’s further evidence of this in the back room, on a large screen showing Hendon F.C. (2009) and Forte! (2010). In the first, an abandoned football field in a suburb north of London becomes the site of a strangely captivating and melancholic game about the differences of scale between the wild grass taking over the grounds and the activities of a Roma family which has settled there. Forte!, shot in the grandiose landscapes of the Val d’Aoste mountains near an impressive fort, is more like Hollywood, more spectacular, in the proper sense of the term.
Staircase at the Edificio Copan (2014), on the staircase, is a dizzying exploration of a building in Sao Paolo where we witness Lewis’s taste for architecture and its inscription in time.
Downstairs, Cigarette Smoker at the Cafe Grazynka Warsaw (2010): a static shot of a man smoking in a Warsaw café. And finally, covering an entire wall, the titular centerpiece of the exhibition: Above and Below The Minhocão (2014). This incredible film was shot on a portion of the elevated expressway in the center of Sao Paulo. The road is closed to traffic on nights and weekends and it becomes a park filled with joggers and strolling lovers. Lewis photographs from above and below the structure, turning it into a reflection of modern life and architecture.
EXHIBITIONS
Above and Below de Mark Lewis
Through May 3rd, 2015
Le BAL
6, impasse de la Défense
75018 Paris
http://www.le-bal.fr
Invention au Louvre de Mark Lewis
Through August 31st, 2015
Le Louvre
Paris
